New Ranking Signal: HTTPS

Security should be a top priority for all website. It is a top priority for Google. Google is trying to make sure that websites people access from Google are secure. Google has created resources to help webmasters make their sites more secure. At Google I/O, Google called for HTTPS everywhere across the web.

HTTPS is also known as HTTP over TLS, or Transport Layer Security.

Google is starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal after running tests on sites using secure, encrypted connections with positive results. It is still a very lightweight signal compared to other signals such as high-quality content; but Google might strengthen this new ranking signal overtime to encourage the switch.

Google promises to publish the detailed best practices in their help center to allow an easy transition.

Decide what type of certificate: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate?

As recommended – use 2048-bit key certificates.

Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain.

Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains.

Check out our Site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address.